


don't forget bear meadow creek

by royalcrow



Category: Original Work
Genre: Camping, F/M, idk what else to tag, lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25565434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/royalcrow/pseuds/royalcrow
Summary: sam and her new best friends lani, beck, maison and evan have to say goodbye to their newfound home: bear meadow creek campground. feat. uncle dez in full camping attire.an original excerpt for my own personal enjoyment. my characters, my setting, my story, please don't copyright!





	don't forget bear meadow creek

“Don’t forget to kill the fire,” Uncle Dez says before he shuts off the outdoor lights to his camper and slips inside. I hear sighs and loud footsteps before the lights shut off and he’s off to sleep.  
I stare out at the fire, the flames flickering in my vision. The campground is seemingly silent except for the constant crackling of the fire. Everyone seems to be asleep but us.  
Maybe that’s how it always is. We’re the ones living while everyone else is asleep. We only have each other.  
I don’t dare look out at my friends, though. Too much has happened in one night.  
“Alright, I’m gonna head off to bed-” Maison stands, stretching, but Lani grabs his arm rather ferociously and pulls him down.   
“Sit,” she commands, and he does.  
It goes back to silence until Beck starts talking again, like he usually does.  
“What does this all mean?” he asks, and I see his green eyes illuminated by the flames, and new dimensions seem to appear that weren’t there before. “What does Bear Meadow Creek mean for any of us?”  
I look around. Lani sits next to Maison on the picnic table bench, staring at Beck with what might be anger. Beck is reclining in the nice chair, eyes closed as his face is turned to the stars. Evan is leaning forward into the flames, eyes clearly calculating for an answer to Beck’s question.   
And me?  
I’m still sitting here, watching everything. Watching everyone. Wondering how we got here, in this beautiful, quiet place, under a night sky I’ve never even known existed before now. How I’m sitting around a fire that means so much more than what it looks like next to four people that I crossed paths with in the middle of the forest.  
I’m the happiest I’ve been in a long, long time.  
“It means family,” Evan says, still not looking at us.   
“And hope,” Lani adds.  
I don’t say anything, because family and hope are the best things Bear Meadow Creek ever could’ve given me.   
“Bear Meadow Creek gave us a home,” Maison sighs, and this time I look at him. Because he’s right, and he knows it. Yakima never gave me anything: what I needed was here. With Lani, Beck, Maison and Evan. However fresh a start Yakima could’ve given me, it never would have compared to what I have with them now.  
I feel a tear roll down my cheek. I don’t want this to be over. It can’t be over. I can’t leave, I won’t leave. Bear Meadow Creek is my home now. Lani and Beck and Maison and Evan are my home now.  
“Sam?” says Beck softly, leaning forward again to look at me.  
“It can’t be over,” I sniffle, then I laugh. “Sorry. I don’t even know-”  
“There are so many memories here,” Evan whispers, and it draws me back into silence. “The creek. Moonlight Expeditions. Nights like this,” he gestures to the fire and to us. “The woods will keep them for us. Beck will keep them for us. Right?”   
Beck nods, and I can see tears glistening in his eyes. “Bear Meadow Creek won’t be the same without you guys.”  
“I know,” Lani laughs quietly, and Maison punches her in the arm lightly. “But seriously. Keep following the Tree Trail. Watch the creek run by moonlight. Collect the leftover firewood for us, okay?”  
Beck nods again. I can see the weight of everything bearing down on him- too keep this place running. To hold everything we’ve created while we move on with our lives and Beck stays here, in our home.   
So I stand up, and I walk around the fire. I sit next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “Maybe… maybe we should let it all go.”  
The silence reigns for a moment before Maison speaks up, voice hesitant. “What do you mean?”  
“Leave it all for the new campers. Moonlight Expeditions can’t just be for us, right? People can watch the water by the night sky. Maybe Bear Meadow Creek started our adventure, and so it can start other people’s too.” I don’t know where my words are coming from, only that they hurt. Most of me doesn’t want to let it go. Bear Meadow Creek is ours.  
But I know that it’s not ours. It’s Bear Meadow Creek, it has a mind of its own.   
I can hear Beck’s breathing level out beside me.   
“Sam is right,” comes Lani’s voice amidst the cackling of the flames.  
Beck turns his head to the side, and leans his forehead against the side of my face, whispering in my ear, “Thank you.”  
I only hold him tighter as we look back out at our friends.  
Lani, the warrior princess.   
Maison, the sweet city-boy.  
Evan, the nerdy-but-athletic quiet guy.  
And Beck, the outdoorsman, with his hiking trails and rattlesnake facts. Beck, with his art of the forests and hobbies of putting plastic fairies in tree stumps. Beck, who brought us all together by making us cross a tree trunk over running water.  
Beck, who’s sitting next to me and making me feel like I’m the most important thing in the universe.  
Lani admits she’s ready for sleep, and Maison follows. Evan leans back in his chair for a moment before getting up.  
“Can we not forget each other?” he says, stopping Lani and Maison in their tracks. “I just… I couldn’t…”  
“Let’s never forget each other,” Maison confirms, walking back closer to the fire.  
We meet each other’s eyes, both the moonlight and the fire reflected in each set. We wouldn’t forget. And if we did, the forest would call us back to remind us. Bear Meadow Creek won’t let us forget.  
“Goodbye,” I say, and five pairs of eyes turn away into the night.


End file.
